In spite of last week’s rebound, the Ai40 Investors Index took another tumble. There was no save for the Index, such as that of last week’s jump by Guaranty Trust Bank. This time, a double digit decline by East African Breweries led the downward trend. Last week’s value of 113.97 was brought down by 1.11 points, or 0.97%, to reach a close of 112.86.
In US markets, the major indices closed lower on the back of mixed economic results. Gross domestic product was down while house prices were up. European markets were on the up, however, as oil prices rebounded for their first monthly gain since June.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 0.45%, or 81.72 points, to close at a value of 18,132.70. The Nasdaq lost 0.49%, or 24.36, to end the week on a value of 4,963.53, while the S&P 500 was down 0.30%, or 6.24, to close at 2,104.50.
Gainers
It was another good week for Guaranty Trust Bank. The Nigerian bank was up a further 5.9% on the back of last week’s massive jump of 32.1%. It has been a touch few months for Nigerian banks however. According to Nigeria’s Punch, banks lost 24.5% of their market value over the past year. The rest of the constituents on the winners’ list were a mixed bag of sectors and geographies. Egypt’s Abu Kir Fertilizers took second place with a gain of 5.5%.
South African brewer SABMiller took third place. Rumours have been ‘brewing’ over the past few weeks about a possible bid for the company, which boosted its share price by 2.5%. It was followed by Egypt’s Orascom Construction and Nigerian Breweries, which gained 2.1% and 2.0% respectively.